Peace and Justice Post

Israeli Government Refuses to Secure Criminal Evidence

by Ann Wright, CommonDreams.org, Aug 22, 2010

Despite appeals from 750 passengers on the Gaza flotilla to their governments to pressure the Israeli government to protect and return their personal belongings that were taken by Israeli commandos on May 31, 2010, when they forcefully boarded the six ships of the flotilla, the Israeli government has left millions of dollars of computers, cameras and cell phones and hundreds of thousands of cash unsecured and un-inventoried.

An Israeli newspaper has revealed that four to six computers among the hundreds that were taken from passengers on the six ships have been sold by an Israeli First Lieutenant to three junior military personnel. On August 18, a second officer was arrested in connection with the theft. An Israeli military official described the case as “embarrassing and shameful.” Eitan Kabel, a member of parliament from the Labour party, told Israeli media: “This is an embarrassing, humiliating and infuriating act.”

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by David Dishneau, Associated Press,  August 20, 2010

HAGERSTOWN, Md. — Michael Moore, the Oscar-winning filmmaker, will contribute $5,000 to help defend the Army private suspected of leaking classified documents to an Internet whistle-blower from serving time in prison.

A champion of liberal and left-wing causes, Moore told The Associated Press in a telephone interview he also hopes to make the public understand that Pfc. Bradley Manning exposed what Moore called “war crimes.”

“He did a courageous thing and he did a patriotic thing,” Moore said.

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Harriet Sherwood, The Observer/UK, Aug 22, 2010

Israeli servicewomen train to become army instructors. Some former recruits have spoken out against the military action in the occupied territories. Photograph: IDF/Polaris ImagesIt was a single word scrawled on a wall at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem that unlocked something deep inside Inbar Michelzon, two years after she had completed compulsory military service in the Israeli Defence Force.

The word was “occupation”. “I really felt like someone was speaking the unspoken,” she recalled last week in a Tel Aviv cafe. “It was really shocking to me. There was graffiti saying, ‘end the occupation’. And I felt like, OK, now I can talk about what I saw.”

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Kashmir Media Service, August 22, 2010

Srinagar, August 22 (KMS): In occupied Kashmir, the authorities continued impose curfew and restrictions in major cities and towns to thwart anti-India demonstrations.

Curfew remained imposed in the area in Srinagar falling under the jurisdiction of nine police stations including Batmaloo, Bemina, Qammerwari, Kralkhud, Nowhatta, Khanyar, Maharajganj, Safakadal, Rainawari, Maisuma and Khotibagh besides Bijbehara in Islamabad and Trehgam in Kupwara. Restrictions were in place in Baramulla, Pulwama, Islamabad and other towns.

However, markets remained closed and transport was off the roads in all parts of the Valley.

Meanwhile, police and CRPF personnel, today, launched a crackdown in Rainawari area of Srinagar.

Kashmir Media Service, August 22, 2010

Mary Schwalm / AP

“I think we really need to give them an opportunity to economically, socially grow,” says Mary Campbell, 56, a Mass. city worker. She joins the growing number of Americans who see no end in sight in Afghanistan.

LAWRENCE, Mass. — A majority of Americans see no end in sight in Afghanistan, and nearly six in 10 oppose the nine-year-old war as President Barack Obama sends tens of thousands more troops to the fight, according to a new Associated Press-GfK poll.

With just over 10 weeks before nationwide elections that could define the remainder of Obama’s first term, only 38 percent say they support his expanded war effort in Afghanistan — a drop from 46 percent in March. Just 19 percent expect the situation to improve during the next year, while 29 percent think it will get worse. Some 49 percent think it will remain the same.

The numbers could be ominous for the president and his Democratic Party, already feeling the heat for high unemployment, a slow economic recovery and a $1.3 trillion federal deficit. Strong dissent — 58 percent oppose the war — could depress Democratic turnout when the party desperately needs to energize its supporters for midterm congressional elections.

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As Obama Administration officials and a willing mainstream media report that yesterday was the end of the Iraq War it would likely surprise many that 56,000 US troops remain on the ground engaging in combat operations.

But it seems like the spin is even more surprising to the Pentagon leadership, as Gen. David Petraeus was pressed today on whether this was the right time to have left Iraq, and he said what he most likely wasn’t supposed to say.

“First of all we are not leaving,” Petraues insisted, adding that “there are 50,000 US troops that are remaining in Iraq” and that they retain an “enormous capability.” It is a capability that is tough to reconcile with the official story that these are all just trainers.

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By Bill Noxid, Information Clearing House, August 20, 2010

Watching MSNBC’s coverage of ‘the last combat troops leaving Iraq’ for 3 hours reminded of a few brutal realities that still plague this country and this planet. The first being just how far this country remains from any semblance of reality. It’s the kind of delusional denial that truly can only be believed when witnessed from within. As Keith Olbermann was describing the cinematic quality of the “Strykers driving into your living room,” I could really think of only one thing – The aftermath of a 7.5 year all out United States operation to decimate a people and their society.

There’s no way to comprehend the scope and facets of this operation, because you would need a Pentagon for that. From the first day after initial conquest when the money disappeared from the banks and their record of civilization was decimated by the looting of their museums, it was like any other colonial conquest in history, except every excruciating moment of this one was on television. The following 7.5 years of the assimilation of a country went as diagrammed.

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